Ruts and Trenches

Devotional Thoughts:

What is the difference between a trench and a rut?

• A rut is unintentionally created, has no purpose, and requires repair.
• A trench is intentionally dug to deliver a necessary resource. A trench has a specific purpose and fixes an existing problem.

Someone also said that a rut is just a grave with both ends knocked out.

In his book, “Winning the War in Our Minds,” Craig Groeschel challenges us to intentionally dig trenches for our thinking to replace the ruts that we have been living in because of the lies we have believed.

What is the best way to get someone to believe a lie? The best way is to simply repeat the lie over and over again. There are some lies that we have believed since we were kids. The reason we’re so likely to believe something we hear repeatedly is because we use only 10% of our brains. Our inability to engage more of our brain capacity hinders us from distinguishing truth from mistruth.

Except, guess what? I just stated a lie as if it were true, and you believed it… because you have heard it over and over. We DON’T ONLY USE 10% of our brain. That is a lie! Repetition is the reason for ruts.

This is why our spiritual enemy has been whispering the same lies to us repeatedly our entire lives. He knows that the more often we think a thought, the more likely we are to believe it, an the more likely it is for the lie to become a rut we get stuck in!

Satan is not very creative. He is very repetitive. He knows that if he tells you a lie often enough, you will eventually believe it. Then that lie will effect your life as if it were true.

So how will you overcome his lies? How will you replace the old rut with a new pathway (a trench)? The answer is repetition. We need to find the truth, memorize, write it, think it, confess it over and over, until you believe it and it becomes part of who you are.

What ruts do you need to replace with trenches of truth? What are the truths you need to create a trench with? Looking back over the last week of devos, here’s a few that come to mind for me:

• 2 Tim 1:12 Paul said, “for I know the one in whom I trust, and I am sure that he is able to guard what I have entrusted to him until the day of his return.”
• 2 Tim 1:7, “God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love and self-discipline.”
• Psalm 112:6-8 “Such people will not be overcome by evil… they confidently trust the Lord to care for them. They are confident and fearless and can face their foes triumphantly.”  
• Dan 3:15 “The God whom we serve is able to save! He will rescue us from the power of the king.” 
• Phil 2:8 Fix your thoughts on what is true… For I can do everything through Christ, who gives me strength (Phil 4:13) For the same God who takes care of me will supply all your needs from his glorious riches, which have been given to us in Christ. (Phil 4:19)
• Lam 3:22-23 The faithful love of the Lord never ends. His mercies never cease. Great is his faithfulness; his mercies begin afresh each morning.  

Anyway, those are just from the last couple weeks. Here’s what I am praying for you today.

Prayer Points:

1. Begin to recognize the ruts… lies that we act upon as if they are true.
2. Dig trenches with truth… meditate on, repeat them over and over, so that you begin believing them.
3. I pray God will reveal your ruts, and show you the truths that can dig new trenches for you.
4. That you will find God’s mercies new every morning. To do so, you need to be in His Word every day. I am praying that His Word will become a cherished obsession for you.